bike culture blogged

I’ve mentioned Biologic’s Cipher Gloves a few times after getting a sample and tested them yesterday on a snowy ride. They work well and are for use with any touchscreen phone. 3M conductive fabric is sewn onto the forefinger and thumb. They’re a thin, soft shell, stretchy fabric that’s warm enough for a cold day, but you’ll want a liner inside or another glove over them for the snowy days. They include reflective piping and that’s a nice touch for the cyclist.

I took that video while riding with the gloves. I did notice how touchy fingers are with a pressure-sensitive “touch zone” on a screen. With fabric over your finger that’s wider than the pad of the tip, you’ll need to aim closely to get the camera loaded up, slide to unlock, or type. Use gloves like this for quick functions, like switching to play music or answering the phone. Your bare finger is much better at typing so you’ll not want to compose an essay-long email at stop lights or on the ski lift.

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Unlike a lot of steel track bikes you’ll see at NAHBS which are built to look cool, these track bikes were meant to be ridden and ridden fast. The first was a bike built for Francesco Moser in an attempt to better his Hour Record. The bike uses what appears to be a 650C front wheel as was common for pursuit bikes at the time, and on the rear is a big f**k-off wheel. The Yeti bike on the bottom was a kilo TT bike for American Rory O’Reilly, and uses 24” wheel front and back. About a six of these bikes were made for O’Reilly and four team pursuiters. Perhaps these bikes were evolutionary dead ends, but they sure were interesting.

Moser’s bike looks like it has a 45-47tooth chainring or possibly smaller with maybe a 20t cog….I bet that gear is still hella steep. And then get a load of the Yeti’s gigantor chainring.

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Among frame manufacturers, perhaps none delivery a product with more self-belief and restless pursuit of progress than Cervelo. When more established companies have carefully calculated how best to capitalize on their traditions while still appearing cutting edge, Cervelo has thrown itself into the melee of elite competition to demonstrate their innovative ideas. Where other companies talk of the romance of bicycles and maybe add a little skin appeal for the catalog photos, Cervelo serves up cold dishes of test rig data, wind tunnel results, and an astounding quantity of Pro Tour podium placings. As a company they first had a strong following with their triathlon frames before they succeeded into the road market (a rare feat in this industry), bringing the measured design philosophy to bikes like this R3.

The R3 falls into Cervelo’s “Squoval” category,a term that describes their all-around road frames using main triangle tube with somewhat rounded rectangle cross sections. Different from the “Aero Road” category models S2 and S5, these refined Squoval bikes have been optimized for weight, stiffness, and ride quality ahead of aerodynamics. More striking though are the whisper thin seat stays that make Yolandi Vi$$er look like Adele, though the chain stays seem so solid that the seat stays might be redundant anyways. By paring away excess material wherever possible, bumping up the volume of the structures for stiffness, Cervelo sculpted a frame that has conquered both Paris-Roubaix and Grand Tour stages.

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Rode the Parlee CX-H in the snow and tried Biologic’s new Cypher Gloves to take the photos and video. The Hevic wheels with Limus tires worked well on the low packed snow and slush, but those aren’t for the deep stuff or ice.

Cyphers worked well touching the iPhone screen, not for very cold conditions though

Just around the corner from Hugga HQ is a nature preserve

Video

Check the video.

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+SXSW released their schedule this week and Built is at Noon on the Next Stage, Tuesday March 13th. I host the event and it’s +Bike Hugger’s flavor of an Ignite, with ten 5-minute presentations by diverse speakers on rapid fire topics surrounding the idea of re-purposing: taking the ordinary and creating the extraordinary.

Built is an attendee favorite and I’m proud to bring it back and represent in Austin, like I’ve done for years. If you’ve got a topic to submit, get it in now.